The present invention relates to stringed musical instruments and more particularly to stringed musical instruments which can be collapsed so as to be conveniently carried, transported, and stored in a more compact form.
Conventional electric guitars come in a variety of shapes and sizes. However, they are generally too large to be conveniently carried and transported, particulary on modern airlines which require the owner to have such guitars transferred with the baggage. Quite often, musicians are forced to purchase an extra seat simply for the guitar, since a modern electric guitar is a somewhat delicate instrument and the owner of such an instrument would prefer that it not be transported with the baggage. In addition, many electric guitars are very valuable or have their own unique attributes which make them irreplaceable to the owner so that the owner does not want to risk having the guitar lost because it was transported with airline baggage. It is also desirable in other situations that the modern electric guitar be made less bulky in order to be more conveniently carried or transported.
Some prior art collapsible guitars have incorporated a hinged neck which allows the neck portion of the guitar to be folded so as to fit into a suitably sized recess in the main body of the guitar. An example of such a device is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,211 to Jorgensen. The Jorgensen guitar also has grooved portions on the main body which receive the guitar strings when the neck is in a folded position in the main body. Although the Jorgensen guitar folds into a relatively compact form instrument, a primary disadvantage exists in that the folding of the neck involves excess lateral displacement of the strings of the instrument resulting in the application of excess tension thereto necessitating that the guitar be retuned after it has been erected into a playable guitar. In addition, the rather large recess in the body of the guitar, and to a lesser extent, the grooves in the guitar body, have a pronounced effect on the resonance and other musical characteristics of the guitar. Consequently, such prior art guitars may not have the desired "sound". Moreover, such prior art guitars cannot be played in their collapsed form.
Another prior art collapsible guitar utilizes mechanisms which relax the strings in order to permit the neck to be folded. An example of such a prior art collapsible guitar is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,093 to Field. The Field guitar employs a somewhat complex system of gears and rollers to relax the string tension and additionally employs a spring loaded pin to lock the neck in an extended position when the instrument is to be played. However, a disadvantage with the Field guitar is that its complexity and its sophisticated mechanisms add to the cost of manufacture of the guitar making the guitar somewhat more expensive than other guitars of comparable musical quality. In addition, such complex mechanisms may adversely affect the tonal characteristics of the guitar. Moreover, as with the Jorgensen guitar, the Field guitar reduces only the length of the musical instrument and retains the original width dimension of the instrument. Thus such prior art guitars are not as dimensionally compact as desired by guitar owners.
Other prior art collapsible guitars have body sections which are foldable or collapsible. An example of such a prior art guitar is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,882 to Shaw. The Shaw guitar has a main body which has wing-like sections at lateral portions thereof. These wing sections are provided with expander mechanisms which include a threaded stem projecting through one wall in order to manually expand the wings out of their collapsed position into their expanded position. In addition, the Shaw guitar also has a neck portion which is folded by means of a hinge over the top of the instrument body. A major disadvantage with such guitars is that folding the strings in order to collapse the guitar requires that the guitar be retuned when erected. Another important disadvantage with such prior art collapsible guitars is that it is required to have a particular shape, i.e. the wings must be in a triangular form so that the guitar is collapsible, as desired. In addition, the somewhat complex mechanical mechanisms tend to both make the guitar more expensive and adversely affect its tonal characteristics.
Still other prior art guitars are composed of separate sections or parts which may be joined together to yield a musical instrument in unitary form. Such a prior art guitar is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No 4,254,683 to Nulman. The Nulman guitar essentially includes two portions, one of which is a neck and fingerboard portion and the other which is a main body section. The main body section has a recess, or socket, to receive the correspondingly shaped portions of the fingerboard and the neck. When assembled, the upper surfaces of the main body and the fingerboard are coplanar. However, such prior art guitars provide only a limited degree of desirability as exhibited by the lack of reduce dimensional size of the component parts and difficulty in assembly, which requires special tools and a certain amount of manual dexterity.
A collapsible electric guitar is thus needed that can be collapsed into a form in which it has reduced length and width. Moreover, a collapsible guitar is needed that has such attributes that consists of a relatively simple design, an easily collapsible form, and the desired tonal characteristics, as well as the ability to be played being playable in its collapsed form.